Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/222

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186

Ideal Beauty.

CXXIII.

Ideal Beauty.

Absolve me for a while, undo
The links that bind me as your thrall.
So I be more myself, more worthy you;
Let me forget you too in dreams,
Your lang’rous waist and musical
Soft ways, like cadences of streams
Unlooked for, strange, but sweetly rhythmical;

The morning freshness of the rose,
The suave, strong motion of the sea,
The strenuous splendour and repose
Of marble, and the lily’s purity;

All these are types that symbolize
The secret charm, the subtle grace,
The music as of Paradise
That plays about your lissom limbs and face;

Let me forget all these and be
Once more self-centred, circumspect,
And of dædalian longings free.
Let me a fuller, stronger life elect;

So may I on a windy shore
See screaming seagulls flying near,
And hear the hollow channels roar,
Nor seek in every breeze your voice to hear:

Or where the glints of sunshine steal
Through clust’ring clematis and fern,
There let me roam alone and feel
The simple joys of sense for which I yearn;